Sunday, 27 January 2013

YJ: Invasion - Episode 13

The Fix

Recap: The episode begins with Artemis in her room on Black Manta's submarine, thinking to herself how everything has gone so wrong so quickly. Due to M'gann accidentally destroying Kal's brain, she's now kind of stuck, alone, in an enemy base while in the guise of a supervillain called Tigress. And on top of that, the magic charm she's using to be Tigress is starting to make her forget who she was originally, though that might be due to her having to live a false persona 24/7. She says that she's only got herself to blame for getting stuck in this mess though, as although she and Wally had a good thing going being retired and "normal", she couldn't say yes fast enough when Dick rang to ask her if she wanted to take part in the secret mission. And to make matters even worse, she's reintroduced to Psimon, who Black Manta explains is there to reconstruct Kal's mind, which naturally makes Artemis worry about her and Kal being exposed.

Title Sequence.

As Psimon begins his treatment, Black Manta asks Tigress to stay with Kal until it's over. In an oddly nice moment for him, he places his hand on her shoulder and says that although he never said it, he knows that she means a lot to his son. He then goes on to say that she should be pleased to hear how he's now going to take action against the "Martian Witch" that did this to his son. This annoys Artemis, as she now has to save M'gann as well, and via long distance no less...

At the League's temporary HQ at STAR Labs, M'gann has been asked to check the mind of their new buddy the Green Beetle to see if his story from the last episode adds up. Unfortunately the Kal Incident has made her reluctant to use her telepathy on anyone, even people who say that it's okay for her to do so. She eventually gets it going, and GB is surprised to learn that she's actually a White Martian. He doesn't seem to hold it against her though, and sensing that she had a traumatic experience involving a hostile mind link lately he offers his thoughts to her freely, and she confirms to the Team that she's actually on the level.

Back in the Black Manta Sub, Psimon continues his mental rebuilding of Kal. Artemis shoots him with a dart, which is loaded with a venom that will put him into a coma for weeks. Psimon tries to beat her telekinetically to death against the bulkhead, but passes out before he can do so. BM demands to know what the heck just happened, and Artemis says that Psimon just went berserk and that Miss Martian must have placed a telepathic virus in his mind or something. BM says that this means that they won't be able to use any of the Light's other telepaths to fix Kal either, but Artemis says that there's another way, they can kidnap Miss Maritan herself and get her to repair the damage herself. BM says that this is probably the best course of action, but Kal would never forgive him if he let her go up against the Martian alone, so he's going to send someone with her to help out. That person being Deathstroke, who appears to have been watching from the doorway for some time now.

After the break, we're treated to an advert for the Reach/LexCorp's new drink from the last episode, which is all kinds of flavours of wrong, especially all the happy children running up to the Reach Ambassador... considering what he and his people have been doing to children for some time now... and Godfrey is there too for some reason. Still, it can't be any worse for you than Sunny Delight. GB reveals that the Reach's Additive from the last episode contains two chemicals which taken over generations addict people to the drink, while also inhibit people's behaviour and making them placid and incapable of revolt. Dick Grayson say that that matches with what their independent analyses of the drink have said. GB realises that he's still being tested, which he admits is probably wise on the part of the Team, and as an extra thing to prove how trustworthy he is, he says that the Additive also includes a third chemical which allows the Reach to isolate and track people with the metagene easier. Dick says that their tests didn't show that, and he thanks GB for the info. Jaime asks if they can go public with this, but Dick says that the League's credibility is a record low at the moment so they may have to bide their time for now.

Lagoon Boy, meanwhile, finally manages to catch up with Miss Martian, whose been ducking him ever since they rescued him from the Reach. Not that I can blame her, the guy is a colossal douche, but she agrees that they need to talk. They teleport to Chicago, where it seems that the TARDIS-shaped teleportation boxes are apparently standard, ha! And the Chicago Box being locate in a junkyard also acts as a First Doctor reference, sweet. Anyways, LB demands to know what M'gann's deal is and asks if its the same reason she's been hanging around with Conner a lot lately. Namely: she's dumped him and is back with her ex-boyfriend. Unfortunately, before she can say what's going on, they're ambushed by Deathstroke and Artemis. M'gann is understandably confused about her former friend attacking her, even more so when Artemis explains that they're there to kidnap her. Artemis telepathically explains thought that she needs her to help Kal, but LB and Slade can't know what's going n, so she needs to make her abduction look good.

LB calls for help, and Dick says that they're three minutes from the nearest teleportation pad but they're on the way. Then Slade proves he's always awesome when he's animated, and beats LB him in really cool ways. They manage to defeat the pair (well... "defeat" MM and just blow up and knock out LB) and they fly off with their Martian prize. And just after they fly away, Nighwing and Superboy show up. Oops. Back at STAR, BB and GB are talking about Jaime's worries about Khaji suddenly going evil, and he wants to have the option of being able to remove it if that seems likely to happen. GB says that he was able to take over his own scarab partly due to mediation and the like, and partly through using his Martian physiology to reach inside his scarab and deactivate it from within. Jaime demands he does the same with Khadji, despite the very grave risks that would be involved...

M'gann comes to on BM's ship, and BM tells her what the situation is. The power inhibitor collar she's wearing will selectively deactivate her telepathy, but if she tries anything beyond trying to help Kal, then Deathstroke, who is outside the range of her power will detonate the powerful explosives within the collar, killing her. Having given the "Help my son or die" ultimatum, BM walks off. M'gann telepathically asks Artemis what she's meant to do, and although Artemis says that the three of them will think of how two escape later, M'gann isn't sure if she knows how to fix what she did to Aqualad. Whoops. She explains that breaking a mind is easy, but repairing one might not even be possible, and her very presence in his mind could be seen to be a threat, possibly making things worse. Artemis says that the only choice they have left them is to take her with her when she goes into his mind, as Artemis won't be seen as a threat to AL. So that's what they end up doing. They go into his head, which his psyche interprets as being like Atlantis but in ruins. They're then instantly attacked by AL's former love interest, Tula.

In a hospital back in Chicago, AL isn't taking M'gann's kidnapping very well. Dick then decides to tell him and Conner just want is going on with AL, how Kal is a double agent and how Artemis is still alive as part of a deep undercover mission they're undertaking at the moment. LB flips out at this, saying that he should have told him that Artemis wasn't dead, but Conner says that Dick is their leader and as such they have to trust his decisions. Thought it could be argued that LB's habit if flipping out randomly, not following orders and generally being undisciplined is argument enough not to trust him with secret information like this. They leave LB to recover, but after Dick tries to thank Conner for sticking up for him, it's SB's time to blow-up at Dick, saying that he didn't leave Conner any other options. He says that due to Dick keeping secrets, M'gann thought that AL had really killed Artemis and fried his brain in response, with no way of knowing how to fix it. Now they risk loosing M'gann and Artemis if she blows her cover, all because Dick didn't know when or who it was best to share information with.

Back in Kal's dead, Tula waterbends at the two heroines some more. Following M'gann's advice regarding how nothing in the mental realm is real and it only hurts you if you let it, Artemis quickly becomes immune to the attacks, but unfortunately MM doesn't follow her own advice and is repeatedly injured as a result, mostly due to her thinking that she deserves it. Seeing no other option, Artemis swims off to try and find Kal to put a stop to it, only to find that he's 1. faceless, and 2. only speaking in Atlantean. Which apparently is taught in schools in the DCU, even if she didn't pay much attention in classes. Hee. Artemis manages to save the lst whole fragment of Kal's mind, and the three of them begin repairing the damage M'gann caused. BM wakes Artemis up, and says that she's been standing motionless for the past six hours. MM says that they've only just begun to repair Kal, and that it'll take days or even weeks before he's fully recovered. BM is pleased when Kal speaks for the first time in ages, recognising who BM is, and tells M'gann to keep it up and she'll be allowed to live. He leaves, but not before revealing that the Reach want him to kill M'gann, but for now he'll stall until AL's mind is fixed. This naturally worries, Artemis but at least they have time to plan now...

And with the wrap up, it seems that GB has severed the mental connection between Khaji and Jaime, which Bart seems to indicate is not exactly a good thing...

Review: A lot happened in this episode, and the majority of it I really liked. I liked the characterisation and animation of Deathstroke, who certainly seems to be a lot more fun than Sportsmaster was. I liked the resolution to M'gann's guilt storyline as well as Dick's secrets beginning to come to the fore. I even liked how Artemis seems to be getting more to do now. Even liked the aforementioned Doctor Who reference, though I do wonder which League thought it up. J'Onn maybe?

Other things I was impressed with... GB's human persona appears to be somewhat Seventies inspired in terms of look, which kind of fits with what we saw with season one Megan too. I also liked how it appears that White Martians aren't automatically hostile in this universe. Black Manta's relationship with his son, and his relationship with Artemis is also kind of sweet in an odd way. I like it when villains act like people. I also liked how they dealt with Psimon and stopped them from calling in any additional psychics to replace him, though I have a feeling that he'll come to just when AL's all healed up. Probably in time for Round... Three? against MM.

Things I wasn't so hot on was Lagoon Boy in person, although I can see WHY he's acting like an ass, he seems to have less depth to him than season one Conner in places. Seriously, I shouldn't be rooting for Deathstroke to beat up one of the main characters, particularly one who has undergone a lot of trauma in addition to having understandable concerns about his relationship (he knows M'gann and Conner still like each other, and that he's standing on very unstable ground in terms of his relationship with MM).